"the

of our humanity. The animal is destitute of it. In putting on garment of praise," whether we are constrained by duty or prompted by love, we do but clothe with a becoming vesture the naked piety of the mind, that we may worship the Lord in "the beauty of holiness." I have thus far considered the subject in its particular aspect, as the best means of acquiring a clear general view. For as Swedenborg observes"If a man in particular were not a church, there would be no church in general. A congregation in general is what is commonly called a church; but to constitute a church it is necessary that every individual of the congregation be a church, for every general implies parts similar to itself" (4292).

Man, as he also remarks, is a church, a heaven, and a kingdom of the Lord in miniature. If, then, we understand the distinction between the visible and the invisible church, as it is in man, we shall readily understand it as it is in the world.

In the Lord's sight, the church is as a single man. In the widest sense, this man includes both the church on earth and the church in heaven; and of this Grand Man the church on earth is the body, and the church in heaven is the soul-the visible and invisible parts. It is the church on earth that we are to consider. And we are to make the same distinction here: for it is the heavenly or spiritual element in the church that forms the invisible church, and the earthly or natural element that forms the visible church.

The visible church consists of those who form the church as an outward and invisible communion-who possess the Word, and know the Lord, and worship Him, and have the sacraments. The body of people who form the church, as it appears in the sight of men, is thus the visible church. It is the household of faith. It has its confession of faith, its laws of life, its rules of membership; it has its ecclesiastical constitution; its ministers, its temples, its preachings, its ordinances: the whole machinery, in short, which is needed for the religious edification of those within its pale, and for extending the knowledge of the truth to those who are beyond it. In the number of those who form this outward and visible body of the church there are some, and there may be many, who, though members of the church as it appears in the sight of men, are not members of the church as it appears in the sight of God. All those, and only those, who are in the church are members of it in the sight of men; but all those, and only those in whom the church is, are members of it in the Lord's sight. No man can tell certainly or positively who these are. They are members of the invisible church. The Lord alone, who trieth the hearts and the reins, knows with the knowledge of sight and certainty who are his elect, His saints in the earth.

T

The invisible Church consists not of those only within the visible Church in whom the Church is, but of all throughout the world who have the essential elements of the Church in them. If a man is principled in love and charity, he is a member of the visible Church, whether he be among christians or heathens, whether he reads the Bible, or the Koran, or the Vedas. The noble testimony of Peter, in relation to Cornelius, expresses a great and blessed doctrine. "Of a truth I perceive that God is, no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth Him and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.” What was, by the Lord's providence, done for Cornelius in this world, is done for every God-fearing and righteous heathen in the next world-if not in this. He realizes the divine promise "To him that hath shall be given." He that hath good in this world shall receive truth in the next. To his charity shall be added faith, so that he may enter into the marriage, by the union of goodness and truth being effected in him.

The truth which was proclaimed by the first apostolic missionary of the first Christian Church, has been repeated with still greater amplitude and emphasis by the apostle of the Church of the second advent.

"All," he says, "wheresoever they may be, who live in good and acknowledge one God, are accepted by the Lord, and come into heaven" (A. C. 2589).

And he gives us a reason for this, that

"All who are in good acknowledge the Lord, for good is from the Lord, and the Lord is in good" (ib.). "Those who are without the Church, and still acknowledge one God, and live according to their religion in a certain charity to their neighbour, are in communion with those who are of the Church, for no one who believes in God and lives well is damned. Hence it is evident that the Church of the Lord is everywhere in the universal globe, although it is specifically where the Lord is acknowledged, and where the Word is” (H. D. 244).

And not only are such in communion with the Church, they are also in communion with heaven.

For

"Whosoever acknowledges one God in faith, and worships Him in heart, is in the communion of saints on earth, and in the communion of angels in heaven. These two orders of saints and angels-are called communions, and in reality are so, since they are in one God, and one God is in them. Whosoever also is in these communions, is in conjunction with the whole angelic heaven, and I will venture to say, with all and every particular angel therein; because they are all as the children and offspring of one father, whose minds, manners, and countenances bear such a resemblance, that they mutually recognise each other" (T. C. R. 15).

The unity which had its centre in God is extended to all who acknowledge Him in His unity. Hence it is that

"The universal heaven represents one man, and the societies there represent his

members. This order is also on earth, but the societies which constitute it are scattered through the whole earth, and consist of those who are principled in love to Him and in charity towards the neighbour; but these scattered societies are collected by the Lord, that they may represent one man, as the societies in heaven. These societies are not only within the Church, but out of it, and taken together are called the Lord's Church scattered and collected from the whole earth, which is also called a communion. This communion or church is the Lord's kingdom in the earth conjoined to the Lord's kingdom in heaven, and thus to the Lord himself" (A. C. 7396).

Such then is the invisible church of the Lord: those of all nations and of all religions, who live according to the light they possess, are members of the Lord's mystical body: and these are seen as such by the Omniscient alone.

But in order that the invisible church may exist, there must needs be a visible church.

The knowledge of the one God, which forms the corner stone of the temple among the nations, they inherit from a former Revelation. But even this is not enough to preserve the knowledge of God amongst them, and their connection with heaven. A visible church, possessing an immediate Revelation from the Lord, must exist in the world, as a centre from which light may be propagated to those beyond its pale, and by which the connection of the world with heaven may be preserved. The visible church is the sacred spot on which rests the ladder, whose base is on earth and whose top reaches to heaven, above which is God, and on which the angels of God ascend and descend: and which is none other than the House of God and the Gate of Heaven. It is the place where the Word in ultimates rests,-that Word which connects heaven and earth, and God and men; and is the sacred channel through which life is for ever flowing, and not only flowing as a stream from its infinite Source, but performing that circle, which has its end as well as its beginning in God. In this respect the course of life is like that of the electric current, which not simply passes, with the rapidity of lightning from place to place, but in every message it conveys, moves in a circle, at the same time going and returning.

But the function and use of the invisible church, in relation to the whole human race, is explained to us by another simile, which is a nobler and more exact correspondence. Our author tells us that the visible church is as the heart and lungs of the universal church, which is as one man in the Lord's sight. This statement is so often made, and is so well known, that it is needless for me to verify it. But I

will adduce one passage which places the subject in a very clear and strong light. In explaining the Lord's promise to Abraham (Gen. xxii. 18), "In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed," the author says,

For the

"This signifies the salvation of all who are principled in good, the nations of the earth signifying those who are in good. Besides this arcanum, it is further contained in these words, that by the church, which is here the earth, those who are out of the church are saved. For thy seed is faith grounded in charity. No others are in faith grounded in charity but those who are within the Church; for faith grounded in charity is truth of doctrine adjoined to good of life. case is this: the Lord's kingdom on earth consists of all those who are principled in good, who, though dispersed throughout the whole earth, are still one, as members of one body. The church on earth is like the heart and lungs, and those who are out of the church resemble the parts of the body which are sup ported and kept alive by the heart and lungs. Hence it is evident that without a church in some part or other of the earth, the human race could not subsist; as the body cannot subsist unless it has a heart and lungs. It is for this reason that, as any church is consummated, that is, becomes no church, because there is no longer any charity, then by the Divine Providence a new church is always raised up; and this to the intent that there may be a conjunction of heaven with the human race by the church" (A. C. 2853).

I may here remark that the same circle of life, that I already spoke of, is implied in this similitude: for the blood which flows from the heart to every part of the body, flows back, and on its way passes through the lungs into the heart again. In passing through the lungs, the blood is brought under the purifying and vitalizing action of the air, which the lungs inhale. And here we see one of the important uses which the visible church performs even to those who are out of its pale. By the visible church not only is the tide of life kept constantly flowing, but its vitality is preserved, by being brought under the purifying and vitalizing influence of the truth, which the church intellectually receives from the Word. For the grand distinction between those within and those without the visible church is this: Those within may be in good and in its corresponding truth, and may therefore be in the marriage of good and truth, even in the world; while those who are out of the Church may indeed be in good, but cannot be in its corresponding truth, and therefore cannot be in the heavenly marriage, or have the heavenly marriage in them, till they enter into the spiritual world, where their good will receive, and be purified by, and united to its truth.

The condition of those without the Church where the Word is not, compared with the condition of those within the Church where the Word is, is very beautifully illustrated by our author. Plants, he says, that are in shady places, where the direct rays of the sun do not

penetrate, never fail to grow, provided the sun be risen above the horizon. So the poor heathen who live in the shady places of the earth, where the direct rays of Divine Revelation have not yet penetrated, may nevertheless grow in goodness, by the indirect light and influence of that sun which they never behold. But those who are faithful to the light, they now receive, but whose source they see not, will live in eternal sunshine in the world above.

Meantime, it is no injury, but, on the contrary, a great benefit to them, that there are others who enjoy the direct rays of the sun.

It

is for their sake, as well, and as much, as for the sake of its immediate recipients, that the Word is placed on earth, as it is settled in heaven, and that a visible Church should exist from it on earth, through which there is conjunction with the Church in heaven.

Since, without a Church on earth the human race would perish, it is divinely provided that when a Church comes to an end another shall succeed in its place. In the world there have been several churches. And now, in these days, the last and crowning dispensation has been established. The Holy City, New Jerusalem, has come down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And what is the adorning of the Church, that prepares her for her espousals? The Word is her adorning. Her sun-garment is woven of its truths of love, her starry crown is formed of its truths of wisdom. She not only possesses the Word, but she understands it; for "it is not merely the Word, but the right understanding of the Word, that constitutes the Church, and that determines its quality" (T. C. R. 243). And as the Word cannot be understood without doctrine, therefore is the New Church a city as well as a bride. Yet "the true doctrine of the Church is the doctrine of charity and faith" (A. C. 2417); and these in the New Jerusalem are equal, for "the city lieth four square, and the length is as large as the breadth."

Like every one that has preceded it, the New Jerusalem is a visible Church, as well as an invisible. It is as true of the collective body, as of the individual, "that the Church cannot exist with man unless its internal be spiritual and its external natural; there being no such thing as a Church purely spiritual, nor a Church merely natural” (Coronis, 19). The New Church must have not merely an abstract, but a concrete existence; it must in the current phraseology exist as an "organization." It has long been a question among the recipients of her doctrines, whether the New Church is to find its ultimation in preexisting organizations, or to form an organization of its own. And as each view has found supporters, and both parties have acted on their